Is there a way to make mv create the directory to be moved to if it doesn't exist?

Question

So, if I'm in my home directory and I want to move foo.c to ~/bar/baz/foo.c , but those directories don't exist, is there some way to have those directories automatically created, so that you would only have to type

mv foo.c ~/bar/baz/ 

and everything would work out? It seems like you could alias mv to a simple bash script that would check if those directories existed and if not would call mkdir and then mv, but I thought I'd check to see if anyone had a better idea.

Answer 1

How about this one-liner (in bash):

mkdir --parents ./some/path/; mv yourfile.txt $_

Breaking that down:

mkdir --parents ./some/path

creates the directory (including all intermediate directories), after which:

mv yourfile.txt $_

moves the file to that directory ($_ expands to the last argument passed to the previous shell command, ie: the newly created directory).

I am not sure how far this will work in other shells, but it might give you some ideas about what to look for.

Here is an example using this technique:

$ > ls
$ > touch yourfile.txt
$ > ls
yourfile.txt
$ > mkdir --parents ./some/path/; mv yourfile.txt $_
$ > ls -F
some/
$ > ls some/path/
yourfile.txt

Answer 2

mkdir -p `dirname /destination/moved_file_name.txt`  
mv /full/path/the/file.txt  /destination/moved_file_name.txt

Answer 3

Save as a script named mv or mv.sh

#!/bin/bash
# mv.sh
dir="$2"
tmp="$2"; tmp="${tmp: -1}"
[ "$tmp" != "/" ] && dir="$(dirname "$2")"
[ -a "$dir" ] ||
mkdir -p "$dir" &&
mv "$@"

Or put at the end of your ~/.bashrc file as a function that replaces the default mv on every new terminal. Using a function allows bash keep it memory, instead of having to read a script file every time.

function mv ()
{
    dir="$2"
    tmp="$2"; tmp="${tmp: -1}"
    [ "$tmp" != "/" ] && dir="$(dirname "$2")"
    [ -a "$dir" ] ||
    mkdir -p "$dir" &&
    mv "$@"
}

These based on the submission of Chris Lutz.

Answer 4

You can use mkdir:

mkdir -p ~/bar/baz/ && \
mv foo.c ~/bar/baz/

A simple script to do it automatically (untested):

#!/bin/sh

# Grab the last argument (argument number $#)    
eval LAST_ARG=\$$#

# Strip the filename (if it exists) from the destination, getting the directory
DIR_NAME=`echo $2 | sed -e 's_/[^/]*$__'`

# Move to the directory, making the directory if necessary
mkdir -p "$DIR_NAME" || exit
mv "$@"

Answer 5

It sounds like the answer is no :). I don't really want to create an alias or func just to do this, often because it's one-off and I'm already in the middle of typing the mv command, but I found something that works well for that:

mv *.sh  shell_files/also_with_subdir/ || mkdir -p $_

If mv fails (dir does not exist), it will make the directory (which is the last argument to the previous command, so $_ has it). So just run this command, then up to re-run it, and this time mv should succeed.

Answer 6

The following shell script, perhaps?

#!/bin/sh
if [[ -e $1 ]]
then
  if [[ ! -d $2 ]]
  then
    mkdir --parents $2
  fi
fi
mv $1 $2

That's the basic part. You might want to add in a bit to check for arguments, and you may want the behavior to change if the destination exists, or the source directory exists, or doesn't exist (i.e. don't overwrite something that doesn't exist).

Answer 7

The simpliest way to do that is :

 mkdir [directorie name] && mv [filename] $_

Let's suppose I downloaded pdf files located in my download directorie ( ~/download ) and I want to move all of then in a directorie that doesn't exit ( let's say "my_PDF" ).
I'll type the following commande ( making sure my current working directorie is ~/download ):

mkdir my_PDF && mv *.pdf $_

You can add -p option to mkdir if you want to create subdirectories just like this: (supposed i want to create a subdirectorie named "python" ):

mkdir -p my_PDF/python && mv *.pdf $_

Answer 8

Sillier, but working way:

mkdir -p $2
rmdir $2
mv $1 $2

Make the directory with mkdir -p including a temporary directory that is shares the destination file name, then remove that file name directory with a simple rmdir, then move your file to its new destination. I think answer using dirname is probably the best though.

Answer 9

You can even use brace extensions:

mkdir -p directory{1..3}/subdirectory{1..3}/subsubdirectory{1..2}      

• which creates 3 directories (directory1, directory2, directory3),
  • and in each one of them two subdirectories (subdirectory1, subdirectory2),
    • and in each of them two subsubdirectories (subsubdirectory1 and subsubdirectory2).

You have to use bash 3.0 or newer.

Answer 10

rsync command can do the trick only if the last directory in the destination path doesn't exist, e.g. for the destination path of ~/bar/baz/ if bar exists but baz doesn't, then the following command can be used:

rsync -av --remove-source-files foo.c ~/bar/baz/

-a, --archive               archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)
-v, --verbose               increase verbosity
--remove-source-files   sender removes synchronized files (non-dir)

In this case baz directory will be created if it doesn't exist. But if both bar and baz don't exist rsync will fail:

sending incremental file list
rsync: mkdir "/root/bar/baz" failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync error: error in file IO (code 11) at main.c(657) [Receiver=3.1.2]

So basically it should be safe to use rsync -av --remove-source-files as an alias for mv.

Answer 11

$what=/path/to/file;
$dest=/dest/path;

mkdir -p "$(dirname "$dest")";
mv "$what" "$dest"

Answer 12

My one string solution:

test -d "/home/newdir/" || mkdir -p "/home/newdir/" && mv /home/test.txt /home/newdir/

Answer 13

Code:

if [[ -e $1 && ! -e $2 ]]; then
   mkdir --parents --verbose -- "$(dirname -- "$2")"
fi
mv --verbose -- "$1" "$2"

Example:

arguments: "d1" "d2/sub"

mkdir: created directory 'd2'
renamed 'd1' -> 'd2/sub'

Answer 14

You can chain commands:mkdir ~/bar/baz | mv foo.c ~/bar/baz/
or shell script is here:

#!/bin/bash
mkdir $2 | mv $1 $2

1. Open any text editor
2. Copy-paste shell script.
3. Save it as mkdir_mv.sh
4. Enter your script's directory: cd your/script/directory
5. Change file mode : chmod +x mkdir_mv.sh
6. Set alias: alias mv="./mkdir_mv.sh"
Now, whenever you run command mv moving directory will be created if does not exists.

Answer 15

((cd src-path && tar --remove-files -cf - files-to-move) | ( cd dst-path && tar -xf -))